The Battle of the Sexes
Goes to War

By

Vivien Ravdin

Updated March 29, 2000 12:01 a.m. ET

B oot camp, 1990s-style: A group of young men and women are practicing hand-to-hand combat. They take their positions in pairs, in the age-old stance of mortal enemies. "Knee to groin!" a drill sergeant yells. Alas, in today's mixed-gender training, it is forbidden for recruits to touch each other. The group begins a "dreamy, slow-motion Tai-Chi-in-the-park" exercise.

This is how Stephanie Gutmann describes the new face of American soldiering in "The Kinder, Gentler Military " (Scribner, 300...